


Prompts of Gold

by thehousethatfloats



Series: Hearts of Gold [3]
Category: Disney Duck Universe, Disney Ducks (Comics), DuckTales (Cartoon 1987), DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2019-10-25 06:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17719772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehousethatfloats/pseuds/thehousethatfloats
Summary: All the prompts I get on Tumblr and whatnot will live here. They all mostly take place at some point in the timelines of my fics All That Glitters and The Last McDuck.A lot of Scroldie, including some alt universe ‘married Scroldie’, and a splash of our girl Dickie too. And now some Delpad too!- Chapter 7, a lil post credit Scroldie scene for Happy Birthday Doofus Drake! -





	1. ‘You love me as if I deserve you.’ Goldie & Dickie

One shot Tumblr prompt - set at some point during the year Dickie lived with Goldie in ‘The Last McDuck’, before she took her to meet Scrooge. 

 

 

Goldie stared at the TV, not really watching it. Some crime drama she had zero interest in, but Dickie had chosen it and she hadn’t cared enough to object. The volume was low, she’d turned it down when Dickie had fallen asleep, her head resting on a cushion on Goldie’s lap.

Goldie stroked the girl’s wild golden hair, marvelling for a moment at the way it was the exact same colour as hers, but it somehow managed to mimic the tufty texture of Scrooge’s whiskers, the way it stuck out at all angles. Not for the first time, she wished there was a way for her to have this with Dickie’s mother. She hadn’t ever even seen a photograph of her, didn’t know which one of them she looked the most like.

Dawson McDuck, the girl no version of her had been able to save. Not in any timeline. Not in any universe.

The girl who slept in her arms now should have her mother. At the very least, she should have her grandparents - her real ones. The ones who raised her and loved her and loved _each other_.

Instead she just had Goldie. And Goldie didn’t even dare tell Scrooge she existed.

‘You love me as if I deserve you.’ She sighed, her words no more than a whisper. ‘I really don’t.’

‘Hmm?’ Dickie mumbled, sleepily. She hadn’t really heard her, and Goldie really hadn’t intended to be heard.

‘Nothing.’ Goldie said, smoothing her hair out again. ‘Go back to sleep, sweetheart.’

Dickie didn’t need much convincing. She snuggled back into the pillow, smushing her face into it and hugging Goldie’s knee absently.

‘I love you, Gigi,’ the girl murmured. ‘Whoever you are, you’re always my Gigi.’

Soft snores followed, and Goldie knew she’d really fallen back to sleep. So she didn’t worry about hiding it when her tears spilled over and started to fall.


	2. ‘Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment.’ Scroldie

One shot Tumblr prompt - set in an indeterminate future when I assume all the DRAMA(TM) from The Last McDuck is resolved and it’s all happy (dysfunctional) families again. 

 

 

 

Shut up, Scrooge.’ Goldie glared, picking flower petals from her hair in distaste.

‘I didn’t say anything!’ Scrooge objected, but he was grinning ear to ear. He couldn’t help himself.

‘I’m suffering here! You’re supposed to be on my side.’ Goldie huffed, tossing a daisy at him.

‘Absolutely nowhere in our long and complex history has it ever been stated that I am obligated to be on your side, in any situation.’

‘You spend enough time on my side of the bed,’ Goldie snapped, grumpily, but it was good natured despite her tone. Scrooge was the only one who knew her well enough to tell.

‘I’ve never heard you complain about that.’ Scrooge teased, taking pity on her and stepping in to help her untangle the elaborate pink and purple braid that Webby had crafted on the back of her head. It had ribbons and bows and flowers and beads - just about everything Webby could find in her arts and crafts box.

‘Whatever possessed you to offer yourself up for makeover duty?’ Scrooge asked, combing his fingers through her locks in an attempt to help tame them. He wouldn’t mention the glitter. She’d find out soon enough.

‘Apparently I’m a glutton for punishment,’ Goldie grumbled. Scrooge chuckled, and Goldie twisted around to glare at him. ‘I am not ashamed,’ she said. ‘It was me or Dickie. I took one for the team.’

Scrooge sobered a little at that. Dickie hadn’t been doing all that well lately. Webby’s slumber party idea had been intended to take her mind off things, but everything Webby did was pretty intense, as was her way.

He knew neither of his girls were particularly good at talking about their feelings, so the fact that Goldie had taken the hit and fallen victim to Webby’s sleepover cliches to save her granddaughter from the same fate was her way of showing she cared.

He pressed a kiss into her hair, grinning as she continued to sulk.

‘I’m sure she appreciated it,’ he said. Goldie snorted.

‘Hardly. The little demon couldn’t stop laughing.’

That set Scrooge off again, his shoulders were shaking and he did his best to hide his own laughter in her hair.

‘Oh that’s it,’ Goldie said, twisting in his arms. She knocked his glasses off his beak and attacked his whiskers, aggressively adorning him with flower petals and pink hair clips wherever she could reach.

Scrooge kept laughing as her onslaught continued, and the only way he could get her to stop was to take her hands in his and pin them behind her back. She responded by kissing him senseless.

They stumbled onto the bed, Goldie landing heavily on top of him so that she at least had the satisfaction of seeing him winded.

‘The girls still asleep?’ He asked breathlessly, his expression suddenly serious.

Goldie nodded. ‘Dead to the world. I should probably sneak back in before they wake up though. Keep up slumber party appearances, you know.’

Scrooge just kissed her again, keeping one hand in her hair while the other roamed down her back, brushing over her tail feathers and slipping under the silk of her nightgown. Goldie let out a soft moan, and Scrooge was suddenly very aware of how this was going to end.

‘Maybe we should take a shower first,’ he said, managing to tear himself away from her just long enough to complete the thought. ‘Or Beakley will be washing glitter out of these sheets for weeks. And you know she’ll punish us for that.’

Goldie rolled off him and watched him saunter away toward the bathroom, a sleepy grin on her face. Then, just as she heard him turn the water on, her brain caught up with her ears.

‘Wait… did you say glitter?’


	3. ‘Marry me.’ ‘We’re already married.’ ‘Marry me again.’ Scroldie

Alternate Universe Married Scroldie! From Dickie’s world in The Last McDuck, before everything went to shit. 

 

 

 

They arrived back at the mansion late on a Tuesday afternoon to find it silent. Ever since Dawson had gone away to college, they found themselves at something of a loose end more often than not and so their escapades had been getting more and more elaborate to distract from the fact that their nest was newly empty.

Dawson was still away, and Duckworth was nowhere to be found. The car was missing too, so they reasoned he was most likely still out shopping for their expected return.

Their treasure hunt had been strenuous, and neither of them were as young as they used to be. Goldie felt her old bones protest even as she pushed open the door, and Scrooge smiled, placing a commiserative kiss on her cheek. If they had to get old, at least they would get old together. And only until Goldie tracked down that fountain of youth she’d heard about so they could get young together too.

Goldie headed down to the garage to unload their adventure equipment. By the time she was done it was all she could do to drag herself back upstairs to find Scrooge, her footsteps were heavy and all she wanted to do was sleep.

Actually, all she wanted was a _drink_.

She found him in the living room, his back to her. As she approached, he turned to face her, handing her her favourite cocktail with a flourish. Goldie took it gratefully, and a whole wave of emotions washed over her. The fact that she, Goldie O’Gilt, who had fought for everything she had her whole life, had somehow ended up with this perfect, adorable, grumpy old man of a husband who knew exactly what she needed and always provided, was a mystery that sometimes caught her off guard. She loved him so damn much, it was sometimes too much to bear. This was one of those times.

‘Marry me.’ She blurted out, unsure of exactly why. She didn’t know if it was a joke, or sarcastic, or if she really meant it - the words just tumbled out.

Scrooge chuckled, and turned back to the drinks cart to fix himself a whisky. ‘We’re already married, you mad woman,’ he said.

Goldie wasn’t deterred. ‘So? Marry me again.’

‘And give you the opportunity to stand me up at the alter - _again_? I think I’d rather leave well enough alone and quit while I’m ahead.’

Scrooge rolled his eyes and headed to the bookcase in search of his cigar box. Goldie was not the only one feeling the strain of their recent adventure. He needed to unwind.

Goldie followed him, her expression indignant.

‘I did not stand you up at the alter!’ She insisted, grumpily.

Scrooge took his time carefully selecting a cigar from the box, and then offered it to her. She shook her head, but Scrooge knew she’d be stealing his off of him soon enough.

‘Goldie, what date was our wedding?’ He asked, innocently.

‘June 4th.’ She replied immediately.

‘And what date did we actually get married?’

‘June 7th.’ She admitted, but she didn’t feel the need to be sheepish. He knew exactly what he was getting into when he got down on one knee.

‘So I took the scenic route down the aisle.’ She shrugged. ‘I got there in the end.’

Scrooge smiled. She really was incorrigible. ‘Yes you did.’ He agreed.

‘All it took was a bottle of vodka.’ Goldie added, raising her martini glass to him in a silent gesture of a toast.

Scrooge scoffed at that. ‘And a bill for three days worth of venue hire, three buffets and three separate wedding bands.’ He grumbled. Goldie grinned and downed her drink, sitting back on the couch and resting her head back, relishing the feeling of being home and not half way up a mountain.

‘It was worth the money and you know it, Scroogey-poo.’

Scrooge sat in his favourite arm chair and regarded his wife. Windswept and covered in dirt, her clothing torn and her hair a birds nest of disarray, fresh as they were from their particularly challenging treasure hunt.

‘The best investment I ever made.’ He said, quietly.

Goldie opened one eye and looked over at him, and her gaze was one of adoration, and that affection was reflected right back at her. If Dawson had been there, she’d have left. She could only stand her parents making heart eyes at each other for so long.

‘You really want to marry me again?’ Scrooge asked, somewhat hesitantly. Even after all these years there were times he found himself letting the doubt creep in. It was rare, these days, but it happened.

Goldie sighed, exaggeratedly.

‘Well, I guess I could do without having to deal with all that planning, and inviting people would be such a bore. I hate most people. Really a wedding is a whole lot of hassle, so why don’t we just skip to the good part?’

She pulled her wedding ring off her finger, got to her feet and and handed it to Scrooge. She beckoned him to his feet and he stood, and Goldie moved to stand directly opposite, close but not quite touching.

Scrooge removed his own ring and passed it to her, feeling strangely exposed as he did so. Like he’d just given her the freedom to run, as he’d feared she would for so many years.

He quickly took her hand in his, rubbing his thumb gently across her palm. Goldie squeezed his hand back. She wasn’t going anywhere.

‘Goldie, do ye love me?’ He asked, softly, holding out her ring and slipping it carefully back onto her finger.

‘I do.’ She assured him, sincerely. ‘Do you love me?’ She asked, her eyes sparkling teasingly.

‘ _I do._ ’ Scrooge repeated, his cheeks colouring like he was a young man again, nervous and blushing in front of his formidable fiancée.

Goldie grinned, wolfishly. Scrooge swallowed, his throat suddenly dry.

‘Then you may kiss the bride,’ she purred, hooking her fingers under his lapels and pulling him close.

‘Oh, I’ll do more than that.’ Scrooge growled, and Goldie squealed when he ducked down and scooped her up, sweeping her off her feet in a well practiced move.

He kissed her, and she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Then somehow, though it took quite some time, they made their way through the house and up the stairs to their bedroom, and by the time Duckworth returned it was only the empty glassware and tinkling chandelier overhead that told him they were home at all.

He long suffering butler sighed, and decided it might be a good time to do some vacuuming. While wearing ear plugs. In the basement.


	4. ‘Is that my shirt?’ Scroldie

Tumblr one shot! Can be any time - just Scroldie being old idiots as usual. 

 

 

 

Goldie rolled over in the bed and frowned, her eyes squinting in the bright morning light. Scrooge was grumbling at the vanity, stooping to see in the mirror.

‘Is that my shirt?’ Goldie asked, chuckling. Scrooge spun around, doing his best to button the garment, looking thoroughly unamused.

‘We overslept, Donald and the boys will be back any minute, and someone managed to get whipped cream and chocolate sauce and lord only knows what else all over my clothes.’ He grumbled.

‘So just go down the hall and get another shirt,’ Goldie shrugged, sitting up and stretching. She smirked as she felt Scrooge’s eyes lingering on her - even though he was mad he still couldn’t help himself.

‘That’s what I’m doing. But I can’t go out there naked can I? So I’m borrowing your shirt. How did you manage not to get anything on it, anyway?’

Goldie shrugged. ‘I have better aim,’ she teased with a grin. ‘I told you we should have slept in your room.’

‘I told _you_ we should have slept in _our_ room,’ Scrooge grumbled. Goldie stiffened at that and seemed to sink under the covers in an immediate defensive sulk.

‘Don’t start that again,’ she said, tightly.

Scrooge sighed, exasperated.

‘I dinnae see why you’re in such a mood about it.’

‘I don’t live here!’ Goldie snapped.

‘No, you don’t. But I don’t share my bed with anyone else and I don’t intend to. So when you’re here, my room is your room. It doesn’t mean you have to stay. It just means when you’re home…’

‘When I’m what?’ Goldie interrupted, her eyes flashing dangerously. Scrooge didn’t back down.

‘When you are _home_ you don’t have to stay in a guest room. Just sleep in our room and stop being such a baby about it.’

‘A baby!’

‘Yes! I love ye, O’Gilt. And you love me. So quit yer belly-aching and hang your holsters in the master bedroom from now on.’

Goldie started at him, and for a moment he wasn’t sure which way it was going to go. She could very well punch him in the temple and climb out of the window, her state of undress be damned.

This was new terrain for them. Spending time together in relative harmony. Waking up together in the same bed. There were times it made Goldie want to run and hide and change her phone number and there were others when she just wanted to drag him back to bed and sink into his embrace.

It seemed this time was neither. Perhaps they had finally found their middle ground.

‘Alright fine,’ she huffed eventually. ‘We’ll sleep in your room tonight. Our room.’ She corrected, with a grimace.

‘Good.’ Was all Scrooge said.

‘And you’re wearing that shirt,’ Goldie added with a devious wink. Scrooge chuckled and shook his head, knowing that if it was what she wanted he would most definitely be wearing her shirt again tonight.

He slipped out of the guest room and crept down the hall, listening out for any sign of Webby or Beakley lurking. There was one woman in his life he’d wear anything for, and there were two more who would never let him live it down.


	5. A post for Delpad day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s Delpad Day and I didn’t know I shipped them but apparently I do.
> 
> The ratio of Delpad to Scroldie is seriously unbalanced but I mean, it’s me so it was always going to be. This is set in an indeterminate future where The Last McDuck is done and everyone’s miraculously happy and Della’s back and Lena and Dickie are there too.

‘Oh wow, I didn’t see that coming,’ Goldie commented from her spot by the window.

Scrooge glanced up from the financial paper he was leafing through in bed.

‘What’s that?’ He asked, absently. Goldie looked back at him over her shoulder, a mischievous glint in her eyes as she braided her blonde hair.

‘Oh nothing,’ she shrugged, innocently. ‘Just your pair of adorable pilots canoodling in the cockpit of a biplane in your driveway.’

‘WHAT?’ Scrooge leapt three feet in the air and fell right out of the bed. The sheets tangled around him as he struggled to escape, and Goldie just watched him with an amused look on her face.

Scrooge escaped the prison of his own sheets and scrambled to his feet, crossing the room in three bounds and pushing past Goldie to press his face up against the glass.

‘Oi!’ Scrooge shouted, yammering a fist against the window. Launchpad and Della leapt apart and looked up at the window, from which Scrooge glared and Goldie grinned over his shoulder.

Scrooge threw the window open and leaned out, shaking a fist in the air. Goldie grabbed the back of his robe lest he actually fall out.

‘Launchpad!’ He yelled. ‘Get your mangy mitts off of my niece or you’re fired!’

‘Yessir Mr McDee sir! Sorry sir!’ Launchpad saluted and side stepped as far away from Della as he could. Della, on the other hand, clenched her fists.

‘Get your butt back here, McQuack,’ she snapped. Launchpad looked utterly torn, he didn’t know whose wrath was more terrifying to incur. He wound up taking an awkward sort of half step back toward Della, while Scrooge continued to glower above.

‘You don’t have approval on who I date, Uncle Scrooge,’ Della called up to the window. ‘And if you fire him you’ll have no pilot, because I’m sure as heck not gonna fly for you if you fire my boyfriend. C’mon LP.’ She grabbed Launchpad’s hand and dragged him off toward the garage, while he grinned and waved apologetically over his shoulder.

Scrooge seethed at the window as they went, and Goldie placed a soothing hand on her shoulder.

‘Easy Sourdough, you’ll give yourself a heart attack if you’re not careful,’ she warned, turning him away from the window. ‘Calm down, will you? You like Launchpad. Sure, he’s not the brightest button in the cockpit but he’s a nice guy.’

‘I _used_ to like him,’ Scrooge grumbled.

‘She’s a grown woman. With three _teenage_ sons. If this is how you react when Della hooks up with a guy, god forbid how badly you’re gonna take it when Lena or Webby start going on dates.’

Scrooge’s eyes flew open wide. ‘Wait - what? What have you heard?’

‘Oh Scroogey-poo, your old fashioned double standards are adorable, you know that? Let the girl live her life and make out with whoever she wants. She’s going to do it anyway, it’s just better for your blood pressure if you don’t have a conniption every time she does.’

‘He’s not good enough for her,’ Scrooge said, though his argument was losing steam. Especially since Goldie knew that Scrooge really did like Launchpad.

‘No one will ever be good enough for her in your eyes,’ Goldie laughed, slipping her fingers under the lapels of his robe and tugging him closer. She kissed him one, twice, and once more for luck. By the third Scrooge seemed to have calmed, mostly. Then his brow furrowed.

‘Goldie?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You didn’t mention Dickie.’ He said, his eyes narrowing.

‘Hmm?’ Goldie looked innocent.

‘When you mentioned the girls going on dates, you never mentioned Dickie.’

‘Ah…’ Goldie averted her eyes, suddenly very aware she had just done something very, very stupid that she was going to be made to regret.

‘Goldie, is Dickie dating someone?’ Scrooge asked, his voice wavering. This was all too much to deal with so early on a Sunday morning.

‘Well, no. Not some one. Not one specific person, right now.’ Goldie shrugged, evasively. ‘Not seriously. You know how it is… she’s a college student, Scrooge. I can’t keep track of all the names.’

‘There’s more than one?’ A vein in Scrooge’s forehead started to bulge.

‘Scrooge wait - _wait!_ ’ Goldie cried after him as he marched out of the room, set on finding their granddaughter wherever she was. ‘Oh, she’s going to kill me.’ Goldie groaned and picked up her phone, sending a quick text to Dickie to save herself and run.

There was never a dull day in McDuck Manor.


	6. ‘Is purple my colour?’ Dickie & Gyro

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tumblr prompt from @neopuff, written for her birthday!
> 
> ‘What do you think? Is purple my colour?’

Gyro Gearloose stood in the doorway of his lab under the Money Bin, systematically banging his head against the door frame.

‘Dickie, will you hurry up? If we’re not up in the board room in the next five minutes, Mr McDuck will cut our funding. You’ll be responsible for losing a lot of people their unpaid internships.’

‘Pfft, Grandpa Scrooge isn’t going to cut any funding. He just likes to torture you.’ Dickie dismissed, rifling through the suitcase she’d brought home from college. She hadn’t even been back to the mansion yet, let alone unpacked. Now she was beginning to realise that hardly anything she’d brought home was actually her own. She appeared in her next catwalk look seconds later, with a plush velvet blazer tossed casually over her shoulders and oversized sunglasses falling lopsided on her beak.

‘What do you think, is purple my colour?’ She grinned.

Gyro glared. ‘You look ridiculous.’

‘Shut up, I look great! It’s all about making an impression, Gyro. If we want the board to listen to our ideas, we need them to remember us.’

‘They know who I am, Dickie!’ Gyro groaned, exasperated.

‘Well, isn’t that part of the problem?’ Dickie intoned with a wink. She held out the jacket and squinted in his direction, visualising.

‘You know what, actually I think maybe purple is _your_ colour.’ She remarked.

Gyro deadpanned. ‘ _What?_ ’

‘Maybe part of the problem is this whole… thing? You know?’ Dickie gestured vaguely at Gyro’s entire body. ‘Sure, you’ve got style Gyro, but your style screams ‘I’ve got a massive stick up my butt’. Maybe if you loosen up, play it a bit more approachable, you know… Jonathan van Nest it up! Queer Eye for the Science Guy. That sort of thing.’

‘You’re talking gibberish. _Again_.’ Gyro grumbled.

‘Oh, you know those references. Don’t lie.’ Dickie laughed. ‘Look, I’m sure this little preppy bow tie and waistcoat combo gets you plenty of tail feathers in the gay clubs but this buttoned up look, twinned with your winning personality, it’s not the most power dressing combo.’

‘Wait, what?’ The blood all seemed to leave Gyro’s face. He went entirely white. And then he turned rather pink.

‘What?’ Dickie frowned, replaying her words in her head, trying to figure out what she’d said wrong.

‘Why did you say that?’ Gyro managed, looking like he might be about to self combust.

‘Say what?’

‘Do you think I’m… that I’m a…’ he trailed off, and Dickie frowned, trying to put the pieces together.

‘A raging homosexual? Yes. Of course I do. Of course you are.’

‘I- but- I… who have you been talking to?!’ Gyro spluttered.

Dickie froze. ‘Uh… _you_? I mean not this you, but still, you. The you in my world…’ Then her brain caught up with her mouth and she realised her misstep. Gyro’s face had turned the same purple as the jacket she was offering him. ‘Ohhhhhh. So here, you’re not…’

‘No.’ Gyro said sharply.

‘Okay. Cool.’ Then Dickie frowned again. ‘But I mean, you _are_ … aren’t you?’

‘Well… I… I suppose. Yes. Goddamnit Dickie, this is none of your business.’ Gyro flushed an even brighter shade of puce.

‘Of course it is Gyro, we’re best friends!’

‘We are not.’

Dickie rolled her eyes and ignored him, as was her way. But even she had to notice how uncomfortable he was, and so she immediately turned her intensity level down several notches.

‘Okay listen, you don’t have to wear the jacket.’ She said. ‘I’ll wear it! I’ll be fabulous enough for the both of us.’

She went to shrug back into the plum coloured velvet, but Gyro stopped her.

‘Dickie… hold on.’

‘Hmm?’

Gyro didn’t look at her. Instead, he stared rather intensely at his own feet.

‘Alright, give me the damn jacket.’

Dickie grinned in utter delight. ‘Really?’

‘Yes, really. But if we don’t get this funding approved and Mr McDuck so much as looks at me funny, you’re fired.’

‘You can’t fire me from an unpaid internship at my grandpa’s company, but sure okay, if it helps you sleep at night to think you can.’ Dickie twirled around in excitement while Gyro ignored her, and carefully slipped his arms into the jacket. As soon as he stopped to smooth out the lapels, Dickie gasped.

‘You. Look. _Fabulous!_ ’ She squealed. Gyro flushed again, and she fought the urge to hug him. ‘Come on, let’s go smash ourselves a boring board meeting. And then afterwards we’re going for cocktails!’

‘You’re not even old enough to drink!’ Gyro objected.

‘Technicalities.’ Dickie rolled her eyes. ‘Oh, and Gyro?’

‘What?’ He asked, exasperated. Dickie grinned again and went to pop a folded up handkerchief into the breast pocket as a make shift pocket square. He really did look very dapper indeed. She stood back, admiring her work.

‘I think purple really is your colour!’


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mild spoilers for today’s ep; Happy Birthday Doofus Drake! 
> 
> A lil post-credit scene...

The kids were all asleep and Scrooge was headed to bed himself, when he spotted the glow from behind the curtains in the hallway. Strange, he thought. With Donald away on his cruise, the pool lights hadn’t been on at night for weeks. He tweaked the drapes aside cautiously and peered down into the yard below, sighed, and headed back downstairs.

‘Hey Moneybags,’ Goldie’s familiar drawl bounced across the surface of the pool toward him as he closed the mansion door behind him. She splashed around a little, making sure he got just enough of a view to spot that she was wearing the gold bathing suit she knew he was particularly partial to. 

‘Back so soon?’ Scrooge quirked an eyebrow, remaining at a safe distance. ‘Don’t you think you’ve caused enough mayhem for one day?’ 

‘Not nearly enough,’ Goldie winked, and leaned back against the side of the pool. ‘But that’s not why I’m here.’ 

It was then that Scrooge spied the small gift bag filled with jewels, sitting neatly on the tiles behind her. 

‘What’s your game here, Goldie?’ Scrooge asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. Goldie rolled hers. 

‘No game, hun. The kid did well today, I figured he deserved his share. Well, a bit of it anyway. You can hang onto it, until he’s old enough to know how to spend it.’ 

Scrooge was surprised, but not unpleasantly so. And then he grinned. 

‘Aha, I knew it.’ 

‘What?’

‘He got to you. Louie. He got under your skin! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who could manage that.’

Goldie smirked, and the water around her rippled again. 

‘Well sure you have, Sourdough. You must look in the mirror from time to time.’ 

Scrooge chuckled, a slight colour rising to his cheeks unbidden. ‘I’m not sure whether to be proud or terrified.’ 

Goldie just shrugged. ‘Either’s fine with me. Now aren’t you going to stop stalling and come join me?’ 

Scrooge’s eyes flew wide, and a bead of sweat immediately gathered on his brow. He cast a cautious glance up at the mansion, where the windows were dark. When he looked back at her, Goldie was grinning. 

‘The water’s just lovely. I’m so glad I left this bathing suit here, it was certainly helpful today.’ 

‘Yes, well. I don’t have mine, it’s at the Money Bin,’ Scrooge said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. ‘So... I’ll have to leave you to it I’m afraid.’ 

Goldie scoffed, and swam quickly across the pool to where he was standing, now dangerously close. 

‘It would hardly be the first time I’ve seen you without pants, Scroogey,’ she said, looking up at him through her thick lashes. 

Scrooge gulped, and glanced over his shoulder again. That was all the time Goldie needed to reach out and take a hold of his ankle, knock him off balance, and pull him into the pool, spats and all. 

‘Gah, you mendacious minx! This is my best coat!’ Scrooge spluttered as he flailed around in the water. 

‘It’s your only coat, Scrooge,’ Goldie quipped, swimming closer still. He stopped thrashing when she put her hands on his shoulders and pressed a ghost of a kiss to his beak. When she pulled back, his face was pink, and his eye lids dropped in that adorably dopey way they only seemed to do when he was looking at her. 

Usually, right after that, she’d wallop him and make off with his treasure. But not tonight. She’d won enough of a payload today to enjoy some downtime. 

‘Now, don’t you think we ought to get you out of these wet clothes?’ She teased, pushing the sodden fabric down over his shoulders. This time he didn’t object. ‘You’ve got to be careful at your age, old man. Catch a chill and you could catch your death.’ 

Scrooge glared then, and growled, shrugging out of his coat and discarding it so that it floated away, water damage forgotten. 

‘I’ll show you old, you lamentable lassie...‘

Goldie shrieked as she was unceremoniously dunked and came up spluttering. Her eyes glinted as she prepared to retaliate. The game was on. 

And as the splashes raged, then calmed to stillness, the mansion slept on, blissfully unaware, just the way they liked it. 


End file.
